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Media Create Sales: Week 8, 2013 (Feb 18 - Feb 24)

Shion

Member
What, do you think it'll get worse? There's no where to go but up, and history has shown that consoles pick up when quality software releases.
History has also shown that:

1: Hardware bumps are only temporary when you can't create momentum through a consistent release schedule.

2: You can't have a consistent release schedule without proper 3rd party support.
 
I imagine Sony found out about MH a few months before Nintendo made the announcement in September 2011, possibly around the time that MHP3HD Vita was cancelled. It would mean a development time of less than two years, but I don't think that's impossible.



I personally doubt Sony was aware as early as 2010, but it's possible.

lol, whoops, corrected now
 

Laguna

Banned
Inafune is a funny guy. His first announced handheld game was for 3DS and surprise it was a very kiddy one, then after MH went exclusive for 3DS, he tried to fill the gap with a Monster Hunter-clone on PSV. Whatever excuse he uses, you can´t get more obvious that this were absolutely "businessmen" decisions than creative ones.
 

deviljho

Member
I can definitely understand how Inafune's comments about taking the "good parts" from Monster Hunter might sound arrogant. It implies he left out the bad parts, which is kind of an assy thing to say, professionally. Especially when he's admitting they borrowed elements from MH and is intentionally drawing comparisons to put his game in a more attractive light.

A more professionally courteous statement might have been to say they adapted certain parts of MH to create a game that feels similar, yet different.

Right. He's intentionally trying to use the success of MH to sell his game by acknowledging that he copied the "good parts," implying his game will be better, all the while calling himself a "creator" detached from the "businessmen." Would this game exist if MH was also on the Vita? No.

Everything else is speculation

If that's how you see the world...
 

Spiegel

Member
re: Soul Sacrifice

The first task Inafune assigned himself after leaving Capcom in November 2010 was to sort out the games he wanted to make. He wrote "concept sheets" describing these ideas, and ended up with about 7 or 8 ideas in the span of one month. One of these was a multiplayer action game with a fantasy theme.

He spoke with Sony's Shuhei Yoshida about this fantasy multiplayer game idea, explaining that he wanted to make it target a worldwide audience. Yoshida enthusiastically said that Inafune should make a more solid plan out of it, so he did just that, creating a proper design document.

Everything else is speculation

Of course, they are putting a lot behind the game because Capcom decided to take MH elsewhere. But Sony already transformed WKC into a MH clone so it's not that hard to think that they'd greenlight an original Inafune MH game even when they had MH.
 
So with Wii U around 10K a week in Japan...and the US....and probably another 10K for the rest of the world...30 K a week worldwide. Check.

~120K a month worldwide. Bleh.

With that sales rate (which, outside some weekly bumps, will most likely trend lower the next half year) and I bet over 1+ million units in the retail market or in inventory, I wonder if Nintendo has temporarily shut down, or at least slowed, production of the Wii U. I wouldn't be surprised if you watch Nintendo suppliers that there is a huge cut in some parts specific to the Wii U. They really don't need to make another Wii U unit until Holiday 2013.
 
I think, in Inafune's own mind, he views himself as this rebellious creator that could do new and amazing things if only given the opportunity to enact his ideas.

History has somewhat validated him at times. He pushed through Capcom bureaucracy for Lost Planet and Dead Rising, both of which were successes. He pushed for western outsourcing on Dead Rising 2, which worked out fairly well. But it sort of fell apart with Dark Void, Bionic Command, and DmC, probably leaving that initiative's legacy a bit of a net loss. The less said about his horrible brand management of Mega Man, the better.

I always got the feeling from him that he consolidates these failures and puts them at someone else's feet because they just didn't listen to him enough. It's not his fault that something didn't succeed, it was those awful business men. I imagine that he tells himself that he only participates in the same muck that they do because it's the only way to get his ideas out there.

I think Kamiya has a point that Inafune has become a businessman and not a creator, but I think Inafune believes the exact opposite.
 

test_account

XP-39C²
It's the way he does it. The existence of the game solely based on the success of the monster hunter franchise, which no longer exists on sony platforms. It exists because they want money.

So then he comes out trying to distinguish businessmen and creative people in an attempt to downplay the lack of software on the vita, claiming that the vita is "where it's at" for creative people.

And wraps this up in a neat little bow talking about how he copied the good things from monster hunters. Even if he did copy monster hunter, talking about it is just silly. Why? Because this is about money, but he already drew a line between "businessmen" and "creators." You want to say "oh he's doing PR," that's fine... but he's still being a dick.

"If Inafune wanted to make a game in the hunting genre..." vs. Sony wants money

They are making a copycat game because the Vita can't get no monster hunter. That's fine, but they should shut the fuck up about copying it and then calling out who the "businessmen" are and who the "creators" are.
The reason why he mentioned the Monster Hunter stuff is probably because he was asked directly about it. Yes, 95% (if not more) of the retail games that excist today excist because they want to make money.

I'm not sure that he ment to make a 100% diverted line between creators and businessmen. I understood it like he means that the publishers wont greenlight Vita games because it is selling badly, while the developers would love to work on the Vita if it was up to them. He doesnt mention anything about that other platforms arent interesting to work on. But as mentioned, what he said can be understood in different ways. It depends on how much one reads between the lines.
 

test_account

XP-39C²
The problem is that the PR is garbage. I don't have a problem with MH clones existing, in principle.
Wasnt this part of some interview? I dont undestood it like he went out with this stuff as a part of a statement. I dont see him downplaying any other hunting game either.
 

SmokyDave

Member
The reason why he mentioned the Monster Hunter stuff is probably because he was asked directly about it. Yes, 95% (if not more) of the retail games that excist today excist because they want to make money.

I'm not sure that he ment to make a 100% diverted line between creators and businessmen. I understood it like he means that the publishers wont greenlight Vita games because it is selling badly, while the developers would love to work on the Vita if it was up to them. He doesnt mention anything about that other platforms arent interesting to work on. But as mentioned, what he said can be understood in different ways. It depends on how much one reads between the lines.
That's what I took from it too.
 

Pie and Beans

Look for me on the local news, I'll be the guy arrested for trying to burn down a Nintendo exec's house.
I almost begrudge how awesome Soul Sacrifice looks because Inafune is such a treacherous asshole. He seems like the kind of person where if someone else was more responsible for all the good in that title, he'll never let it be known. But the second it tanks or whatever, then comes the Lost Planet 2 Dev-Team Under-The-Bus Throw.

But beyond install base which is of course important to games makin monies, the Vita is the better system with more options. 3D really didnt catch on or become useful for game design.

Anyway, interested to see what Soul Sacrifice does for Vita. Sony is probably hoping its at least a partway solution to their Japan problem, while they perhaps hope Killzone and Tearaway are gonna bump western perception.

Watching Nintendo turn up to E3 with just the same ol' franchises is gonna feel weird. God hoping Retro has got the chance to make something new at least, or thats gonna be a groan louder than "Oh its Killzone 4". I'm not entirely sure what could be their saving throw for Japan. In retrospect they shoulda made that whatever MonHun deal to be for 4 on WiiU and not on the 3DS which seems fucking fine anyway. But then Capcom would have finally had to go beyond PS2 assets, so... no-go!
 

deviljho

Member
Wasnt this part of some interview? I dont undestood it like he went out with this stuff as a part of a statement. I dont see him downplaying any other hunting game either.

Interviews are part of PR. You and I are part of the public, and at least one of us finds this distasteful.
 
Watching Nintendo turn up to E3 with just the same ol' franchises is gonna feel weird. God hoping Retro has got the chance to make something new at least, or thats gonna be a groan louder than "Oh its Killzone 4". I'm not entirely sure what could be their saving throw for Japan. In retrospect they shoulda made that whatever MonHun deal to be for 4 on WiiU and not on the 3DS which seems fucking fine anyway. But then Capcom would have finally had to go beyond PS2 assets, so... no-go!

Except Nintendo didn't pay for Monster Hunter, am no doubt its a friendship with benefits but Capcom have more to gain by being on 3DS than being on Vita. Simple fact. And less to gain on WiiU. Anyway it does better as a portable than console game.

Am pretty sure the new MH is built entirely on the new engine too.
 

Mondriaan

Member
Right. He's intentionally trying to use the success of MH to sell his game by acknowledging that he copied the "good parts," implying his game will be better, all the while calling himself a "creator" detached from the "businessmen." Would this game exist if MH was also on the Vita? No.
If we assume that those quotes are accurately translated, he didn't actually call himself anything, creator or businessman.

As far as making a game that's like MH, but without the limitations that many people complain about, what's wrong with that? Capcom has had years to fix things like tiny zones and semi-synched enemies.
 

test_account

XP-39C²
Interviews are part of PR. You and I are part of the public, and at least one of us finds this distasteful.
Sure, i just ment that i see a difference between being asked a direct question and answering it, to put out a statement about it.

Personally i dont see him downplaying anything, at least he doesnt say anything like this directly. He say what he thinks make Soul Sacrfice different from Monster Hunter, he doesnt say anything negative about Monster Hunter there. It depends on how much one read between the lines of what he said. Maybe there are stuff between the lines there, or maybe there arent, only Inafune knows for sure :) I havnt followed Inafune in general, so i dont know what type of person he is in general, but i dont understood what he said to necessarily be any downplay or negative towards anyone else.
 
Someone explain to me what Animal Crossing is? Is it like PS Home/Second Life/The Sims, but more charming? I have no idea what it is.

I'd be surprised if the Vita bump next week is much over 100K (if that), but I'll be even more surprised if it's still above 15K by the end of next month.

LOL Vita ain't doing anywhere near 100K. You are really being unrealistic with that prediction. I would love to eat crow and wish for Vita to sell 100k+ and then stabilize around 50K until the end of the year, but that ain't happening.

As others said, stores already dropped the price so the price drop won't have as big an impact. I predicted 25K, but now I'm going down to 20K for vita HW next week and sub 10k by April.

The best Sony can do, given the system selling SW are all multiplat games, is to get 3rd partys to give extra incentive to the vita version. For example, exclusive DLC for One Piece 2 on vita, exclusive modes and DLC for God Eater 2 on vita, and so on. Maybe FFXHD be exclusive or timed exclusive on it.


SCEJ is a joke as a dev studio and overly relies on 3rd parties (according to Kawano), not a fair comparison :p

Anyone want to translate this? http://blog.esuteru.com/archives/6950007.html

It seems Inafune is finally talking about Soul Sacrifice vs Monster Hunter.

Well comparison is inevitable, but assuming MH4 does what MHP3 did, SS won't sell 1/10 of MH4, probably not even 1/20, so a little bit of humbleness would go a long way.


Also, PSP to hit 20 million and PS3 to hit 10 million this year? PSP is pretty much certain and I think PS3 will if (when?) Sony finally drops the price of the machine to below Y19,999.
 
Anyway, interested to see what Soul Sacrifice does for Vita. Sony is probably hoping its at least a partway solution to their Japan problem, while they perhaps hope Killzone and Tearaway are gonna bump western perception.

It's pretty much their Hail Mary in Japan. They have nothing left for the region that's significantly more likely to move hardware; GE2 and FFX might if they were exclusive, but of course they aren't.

As for the West, the notion that Tearaway and Killzone will do much more to drive hardware sales than COD and AC is pretty laughable, but it seems to be what Sony has left to pray for at this point given that Western third parties aren't on board (we now know that Ubisoft at least has unannounced games coming, but I don't expect any to be major exclusives like Liberation).

LOL Vita ain't doing anywhere near 100K. You are really being unrealistic with that prediction. I would love to eat crow and wish for Vita to sell 100k+ and then stabilize around 50K until the end of the year, but that ain't happening.

As others said, stores already dropped the price so the price drop won't have as big an impact. I predicted 25K, but now I'm going down to 20K for vita HW next week and sub 10k by April.

You're probably right, and that was probably one of my more foolish posts. 20K for next week still seems way too grim, though.
 
It's pretty much their Hail Mary in Japan. They have nothing left for the region that's significantly more likely to move hardware; GE2 and FFX might if they were exclusive, but of course they aren't.

GE2 and FFX would be much bigger system sellers and push vita much more if they were exclusives.

Proven system selling franchises > New, unproven IP.
 

donny2112

Member
You mean 'NSMBU BUNDLE' and a price drop on the Premium to replace the Basic ;)

If they made a NSMB U bundle with download Nintendo Land included for $300, that'd be a lot more tempting of a purchase personally. Still not enough to buy it, but then Black Friday/December sales would bring that down to a reasonable price. Nintendo Land works much better as a download, but no way would I want to spend $60 to download it (talking U.S. prices here).
 

Anth0ny

Member
Holy fuck wii u is deeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaadddddddddddddd

Also, AC cracked 3 million according to Famitsu. Unbelievable!
 
So with Wii U around 10K a week in Japan...and the US....and probably another 10K for the rest of the world...30 K a week worldwide. Check.

~120K a month worldwide. Bleh.

Yep. There's no way in hell they're hitting their already revised sales projection. Wii U is dead the world over at this point. Can't believe they were so unprepared with software given how long they had to work on stuff since killing off the Wii years ago.
 
Wii U will continue to plummet till it gets some games. Which isn't for a while now.
Holy crap at 3DS. I don't think the Vita will have a sustained resurgence in Japan (assuming 10k+ units a week is a 'resurgence'). It will have a week or two of good sales because of Soul Sacrifice, but that's about it. I am also assuming the baseline will be higher now because of the reduced price, but considering the older baseline was literally less than 5,000 units a week, I'm not sure how much better the newer one will be.
 

AzaK

Member
Wii U still a bit higher than I wanted. Was hoping they'd drop even lower so that Nintendo stop being so silent on the system and do something.
 
Developers would love to work on Vita? Why exactly? If I was a developer right now and wasn't money constrained I would want to work with the most powerful hardware available to me and that certainly isn't Vita. Developers want to work on Vita, but business men stop them sounds like a projection of Inafune as to why he's making a game on a failing system.
 

Osiris

I permanently banned my 6 year old daughter from using the PS4 for mistakenly sending grief reports as it's too hard to watch or talk to her
I think we're gonna see another drop in projections for Wii U shipments soon, there's no way they are gonna hit the revised lower projection at this rate.
 
I think we're gonna see another drop in projections for Wii U shipments soon, there's no way they are gonna hit the revised lower projection at this rate.

How are they going to drop the projections when the next meeting is the end of the year results?

Sony is probably hoping its at least a partway solution to their Japan problem,

Sony is betting Vita's entire future on this price drop and Soul Sacrifice. One that, One Piece, and Tales of Hearts are out Vita's lineup drops off into oblivion for japan. And there's about a .1% chance of a large amount of major games being revealed anytime soon as everything that is coming out in March for their relaunch was announced months ago.
 
Anyone surprised by Soul Sacrifice debate? It was clear since the beginning that the game was made solely to fill the gap of a Monster Hunter-esque IP on Vita. It's different in some ways, of course, but it is trying so hard to become the next Monster Hunter that it's even embarassing (look at the ads, or the box-arts). But it's ok, everyone copies ideas in this sector (as many are saying), but at least recognize that this is a quite clear intent in jumping on the hunting action wagon. If Vita had Monster Hunter to begin with, I don't think we would have seen the game so pushed by Sony (let alone the game itself).

The funny thing is that people are discussing about a title that hardly will see large amountsof copies sold, and hardly will improve Vita situation in Japan.
 

Afrit

Member
Developers would love to work on Vita? Why exactly? If I was a developer right now and wasn't money constrained I would want to work with the most powerful hardware available to me and that certainly isn't Vita. Developers want to work on Vita, but business men stop them sounds like a projection of Inafune as to why he's making a game on a failing system.

but if you want to develop a portable game, the vita is the most powerful gaming handheld on the market!
 

L Thammy

Member
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All charts launch-aligned.

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Note, since this draws only from the top 10 it does not represent smaller titles.
e.g., software sales of zero are assumed if the console has no games in the top 10.

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Tally of the number of titles for that platform in the top 20 for each week.
I can't find the top 20 for PS3's second week. It has been assumed as zero.

Feel free to criticize or point out mistakes.
 
but if you want to develop a handheld game, the vita is the most powerful handheld on the market!

Well this raises the question. Do these developers truly love making handheld games or only they only making handheld games because the market wants that? If that's the case than trying to brush it off as businessman making the decisions is ridiculous because otherwise Soul Sacrifice would be a PS3 game to begin with. In fact, Soul Sacrifice only exists because Sony was in need of business. You can't be a freaking first party developer calling out other people on making business decisions because your entire game is one.

Edit: Also i'd just like to say that 95% developers aren't making these games purely for the fun of it.
 

Chris1964

Sales-Age Genius
What, do you think it'll get worse? There's no where to go but up, and history has shown that consoles pick up when quality software releases.

No other way but up...

I hear the same thing for Vita many months now. (ah right I know, Wii U has Nintendo behind it)
 
How are they going to drop the projections when the next meeting is the end of the year results?

They can do that midway through the quarter. Not sure how often Nintendo has done that, if ever, but it's far from unheard of.

But to state the obvious, if Iwata is as serious as he seemed about meeting that $1B goal for the next FY, he's toast.
 

SmokyDave

Member
Developers would love to work on Vita? Why exactly? If I was a developer right now and wasn't money constrained I would want to work with the most powerful hardware available to me and that certainly isn't Vita. Developers want to work on Vita, but business men stop them sounds like a projection of Inafune as to why he's making a game on a failing system.

Most powerful portable hardware, widest range of inputs, gorgeous OLED screen. I'm no developer but the Vita is certainly the system I love to use the most. I think I can see why it'd be attractive from a creative point of view. I don't think Inafune is the only dev to espouse that sentiment either.
 
They can do that midway through the quarter. Not sure how often Nintendo has done that, if ever, but it's far from unheard of.

Isn't it already past midway through the quarter?

You'd think it right? And they're staying silent as fuck. They're not even adding OS features, releasing the MiiVerse phone app or anything to make the system feel alive. It's like they've abandoned it.

We'll see what they have to say in April at the next meeting. Iwata was able to get away with the last quarter because the Wii U had a decent launch month, but he won't be able to just explain away the abysmal sales in the United States, Europe, and Japan now.


I wonder if Nintendo is finally going to use the billions of dollars they have saved up to actually get content on the consoles, and build more western and japanese 1st party studios, or are they content to have minimal 3rd party support and massive droughts in between 1st party games
 

Levyne

Banned
L Thammy, only criticism I have is that it would be awesome if the consoles had the same color traces in each plot
 

AzaK

Member
Amazing Rising sales. Wow.


Wii U...below 10k and Nintendo right now has zero games announced for April and one game past that- Revelations.

I would have thought the one market Nintendo would have their shit together would be Japan. Appears not.
You'd think it right? And they're staying silent as fuck. They're not even adding OS features, releasing the MiiVerse phone app or anything to make the system feel alive. It's like they've abandoned it.
Which is fine, I'll abandon it too if they don't get their shit together.
 

Mondriaan

Member
You'd think it right? And they're staying silent as fuck. They're not even adding OS features, releasing the MiiVerse phone app or anything to make the system feel alive. It's like they've abandoned it.
Which is fine, I'll abandon it too if they don't get their shit together.

Towns aren't the only thing that are hard in HD.
 

Plinko

Wildcard berths that can't beat teams without a winning record should have homefield advantage
I think Iwata as CEO is not long for this world.
 
I didn't expect Inafune to confess like that, lol.

His line of thought is flawed to the core, but I guess he's not the one losing money or going out of business when a game bombs, so it's easy for him to say stupid things like that.

But let's proceed with MH clones while the Japanese industry is dying. One would think he would at least try to be original. Guess the business side of the thing got him, oh well!
 
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